Planning permission fears at Tara-Skryne plan meeting

Demands for a referendum to be held to allow the people of Tara and Skryne have their say on the implications of a controversial landscape conservation plan for the area were made at a highly-charged meeting in Navan on Monday. Several hundred people turned out at the Ardboyne Hotel for the meeting, the second within a week to hear the views of councillors and TDs, and to air their own opinions on the plan. Last week, an information meeting organised by Meath County Counci had to be abandoned amid chaotic scenes which included slow hand-clapping and heated contributions from the floor. Much of this week's meeting, chaired by Meath East Fine Gael TD Shane McEntee, and attended by at least eight Meath county councillors along with FF TDs Thomas Byrne and Mary Wallace, was given over to questions about the possibility of the granting of planning permission following the introduction of any conservation plan in the area. Eddie Downey, deputy president of the Irish Farmers' Association, who also attended the meeting, described his experiences living in the Newgrange area where a similar conservation plan was put in place. He condemned the decision to build the interpretive centre on the south bank of the Boyne. "People come to Ireland to see and meet the people, not look at a barren landscape. That interpretive centre should have been built in Slane where it would have helped the local community. All that is happening now is that people are being bussed back to Dublin from Newgrange. In our case, every single angle is covered in the conservation document to ensure we don't get planning permission within the red zone of conservation." Another complaint was that the buffer zone around the conservation area was being push out further and further. He said that if he was a councillor, he would be opposed to the Tara-Skryne plan because of the uncertainty in it. Deputy McEntee said that Navan area councillors had met with archaeologist Professor Conor Newman to discuss the plan, and a further meeting had taken place with council officials. He said he hoped the outcome of Monday's meeting would be that the local community would re-engage with their public representatives and the council. In questions and contributions from the floor, Francis Carey asked what guarantee Minister for Environment John Gormley could give him that his children would not have to emigrate because of the conservation plan. Alan Hughes questioned the guidelines set out in the proposed conservation plan while John Daly, Garlow Cross, said that people were going to have to have "passion" to fight the plan. "Otherwise we're all going to have to leave the area," he claimed. PJ Mooney, vice-chairman of the Brú na Bóinne Consultative Committee, said: "If this is the plan, then Cromwell didn't bring in as good a plan. I had two grown-up girls sitting in my kitchen recently crying because they could not get planning permission. We're supposed to be a consultative committee - they will consult us alright, but then they will do their own thing," he said. Joseph O'Brien, Cabragh, Tara, said that because of the conservation plan, it looked as if none of his seven children would get planning permission. The plan was "all about stopping the people of Skryne-Tara from getting planning permission". He asked councillors: "Are you going to vote the way officials of Meath County Council tell you to vote. We want a 'no'". Harry Naughton asked: "Are we living in a democracy? Can we have a vote of the people in the area, a referendum?" Mary Keogh said: "If this plan goes through, we might as well close down the parish." Thomas Farnan said the people of Skryne-Tara were not planners, "but neither are we stupid". He demanded to know from the councillors whether they would grant "a more substantial" consultation process before the vote on the plan was taken. Two councillors, Suzanna Jamal and Nick Killian, expressed outright opposition to the plan. Deputy Byrne said that the conservation document was a county council document and he was "very concerned" that questions were being relayed to the Department of the Environment & Local Government. "We should be able to get the questions to the council, not the Department," he said.